Looking Back
by An Artists Account
Summary: Also known as: Looking Back on a Day in the Life of a Very Confused (and Hormonal) Teenage Boy or the Five Times I Saw Rose Weasley and She Was Soaking Wet or More simply (because I can't remember that) That Day I Fell in Love (Hogwartian Memoires of Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy) ((looking back, now aged 21)) with a little help from Albus Potter and Rose Weasley (also aged 21)
1. Chapter 1

**Looking Back on a Day in the Life of a Very Confused (and Hormonal) Teenage Boy or the Five Times I Saw Rose Weasley and She Was Soaking Wet or More simply (because I can't remember that ) That Day I Fell in Love**

**(Hogwartian Memoires of Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy)**

**((looking back, now aged 21))**

Chapter 1...In Which We Introduce The Characters Which Is, Frankly, Scary Enough

**(1st September, 2027)**

Looking back, I realised I was very stupid not destroy my old journey straight away after leaving Hogwarts. After all, all that evidence in the hands of Al Potter, or even worse _Rose Weasley, _was a terrifying thought. Gulp.

The three of us were stretched out on the ground in the late summer sunshine at mine and Rosie's place. Al was flicking through the dog-eared pages of one of my school journals and occasionally reading bits out to my mortification.

"Geez Scorp, I don't remember you being this much of a git at eleven."

"Yeah, you never said anything when I was around." Rose rolled over and propped her head up on her hand.

I ran a hand through my shoulder length hair and groaned. "I _knew _letting you two help me clean out my attic was a bad idea!"

Rose shuffled closer and laid her head on my chest. "Yes, but just think, I might just let you read my diary after we've finished yours."

I kissed her shoulder, "Now that would be interesting."

"Stop it you two!" Al pretended to vomit into some snap dragons.

Rose kicked him with her foot. "Behave Al," She commanded. He winced and rubbed his shin, scowling.

"You have bony feet Rose. And anyway, what was it with you two and keeping a dumb diary through Hogwarts? I mean, have you heard of anything quite so lame?"

Rose snorted. "Says the boy who keeps a scrapbook."

"That," Al said with dignity, "Is completely different. Much less touchy feely."

I laughed, "Yeah right - Like you didn't have a photos of you with each of your five girlfriends from Hogwarts and your thoughts and emotions all around them."

Al flushed. "I did not!"

I looked at him.

"Okay, maybe I did but that's not the point." He conceded. "We're reading _your_ journal right now, not looking at my scrap book."

"Go on, then." I buried my face in Rosie's neck to hide my burning face. "Let's get this over with."

Al coughed loudly to clear his throat and I shot him a look.

Rose laughed.

"Oh give it here." I grumbled and turning to the first page, avoiding both their eyes, began to read...

**(1st September, 2017)**

Journal Entry 1.

Today, I fell in love.

I met Rose Weasley for the very first time, on the very first day of school I stood waiting on Platform Nine and Three Quarters for the Hogwarts Express to whisk me away to Hogwarts. But I'm not counting that specific point as the official first time because it wasn't.

Not really.

I didn't speak to her , surrounded as she was by her family, but our eyes met and I knew that something was going to happen. Something big. Which is why I took a compartment with her dark haired cousin and hoped against hope she'd join. Of course she didn't but that didn't stop me having my fingers crossed inside the pockets of my robes for the entire train journey and feeling a twinge in my stomach at how much I wished she had.

When, finally, the train began to slow down it had stopped raining but the wind was howling and though I didn't dare say it aloud for the fear of what Al would say, all I could think was _'my Hair!'_

The boats were rocking madly on the rough lake and they tipped alarming as we clambered (rather ungainly on my part) into them. Al and I were joined by two other boys who seemed to know Al and when I glanced back, Rose was gone. Obviously, she had joined another boat farther back in the pack _(what do you call a group of boats? A pack? A swarm? - oh, Al is just telling me it's called a fleet - Don't be such a know it all!)_ I mean the fleet of little boats with her own friends.

The Entrance Hall was, predictably, deserted when we arrived, staggering slightly on wobbly legs. I glanced around and then, just like she'd apparated _(yes I KNOW Al, you can't apparate inside the grounds of Hogwarts, I was making a metaphor, or a simile, or something like that, and NO, I have not ever and will never read Hogwarts: A History. What's the point, you and Rose know it back to front) _, there was Rose, making a beeline for me.

Ha-ha, I wish.

No, she was heading for Al and when she skidded to a halt in front of us I could see why. She was drenched, soaked, saturated, whatever you want to call it. Her fiery hair was flattened against her head and a few strands were sticking to one pale cheek. Her robes were waterlogged and she was leaving a trail of watery footsteps behind her. A couple of people laughed as they saw her and she laughed with them, obviously knowing everyone already, despite the fact we'd only met a few hours ago.

When she reached us she was beaming.

"Oh Rosie," Al rolled his eyes and pulled out his new wand. He muttered something and a jet of hot air shot out the end, drying her. _(Though I didn't say so at the time, Al - your head is quite big enough already thank you very much - that was quite impressive, I knew about as much magic as a squib on my first day.)_

"Thanks" she said, quite unconcerned at what some would have considered abject humiliation. "I fell in the lake."

(Later I was to learn that falling over, into, and generally everywhere was just how Rose worked but at that time, as a stringy eleven year old, that seemed quite impressive)

"Rosie!" Al sighed theatrically, "Aunty Hermione warned you. Leaning that far over from the boat isn't good."

"I saw a merperson." Rose explained, just as if she had announced she had just seen a cow in a field. (I later learned that Rose worked like that, too.)

Al didn't bother to reply.

Meanwhile, I was busy hopping from foot to foot in an attempt to stand on Al's _foot (something I got better at over time, though being in robes does make it easier)_ while still trying to look suave and cool and desperately hoping that my ruined hair looked interestingly windswept rather than, as I feared it probably did, a birds nest.

Al, amazingly, seemed to get the message _(OUCH! Al, that was my foot)_ and introduced me.

"Oh yeah, Rose, this is my mate Scorpius."

"The Weasley hater?" _('I did not say that Scorp!' 'Oh Yes You Did Rosie-Pose' )_ Was her rather unflattering reply.

I shifted awkwardly, not quite sure what to say to that but then she laughed. "I'm kidding! "

"Oh. Right."

She bumped me with her elbow and grinned at us.

It was the start of a long a beautiful friendship.

-0-


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2...In Which We Find Ourselves in a Very Damp Situation That is Rather Sticky Too and Al Does A Lot of Laughing (Which Is Very Annoying)

**(1st September, 2027)**

"It feels weird not being on the Hogwarts Express doesn't it?" I asked Rose and Al. Al had an arm thrown over his face and was flat on his back, sunbathing. Rose was lying on her stomach flicking through my journal still.

"You say that every year, Scorp." Al said, without removing his arm.

"But it is weird, I mean - Look - " I checked my wristwatch. "It left five minutes ago and you don't even care."

Rose rolled over and looked at me. "But we haven't been at Hogwarts for two years now and you're going to have to get used to it sometime."

"I know, I know. I guess I just really miss it."

She reached over and grabbed my hand. "Me too, but we still see everyone regularly and we've all got amazing jobs and today off and it is sunny." She beamed at me and I gazed down at her beautiful face, smiling.

"Listen to Rose, mate." Al advised from under his arm. "You know how smart she is."

Rose looked pleased, but a little embarrassed and instead of replying, reached for the journal. She hummed contentedly as she flicked through it then let out a peel of laughter.

"_Oh Al! _ Listen to this."

I let my head flop onto my arms with a sigh.

**(16th April, 2019)**

I saw Rose soaking wet again today, on the way down to breakfast on the last day of the Easter holidays.

"-and so I told Luke that if he didn't remove his head from his arse before talking to me I was going to rip up that dumb poster of his, you know the one, with all those crazy guys in shorts kicking around a quaffle-"

"It's not a quaffle, it's a football." Luke said patiently, for at least the thousandth time. "And I've put a charm on it so you can't touch it Finnegan your hand will shrivel up and a large quantity of hair will sprout from each nostril."

Sean scowled and aimed a kick at Luke who dodged out of the way easily.

"Too slow, leprechaun." Luke jeered.

"Shut your mouth you babbling buffoon." Retorted Sean, pretending to punch Luke.

"Babbling buffoon, try saying that five times fast." I whispered to Al who grinned.

_('Scorp, get to the interesting bit.' 'Sorry, Rose - just setting the scene')_

"When you two have stopped behaving like a bunch of blithering idiots you'll see who's just arrived." Al said loudly, over the two bickering voices. Luke and Sean stopped arguing immediately and looked where Al was pointing. I looked too and let my mouth fall open.

Rose was walking down the last of the stairs with two of her friends who were laughing.

"Well, looky here." Sean turned to me and I hastily shut my mouth. Too late as usual, it occurred to me that my friends only seemed to get on well when ragging on me about Rose. Sean cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, before I could stop him: "Hey! Rosie, come over here!"

She looked up and waved, before making her way over to us, friends in tow.

"Hey Sean, what's up?"

"The ceiling." He replied drolly and she laughed.

"Get a new line, that one's dead." Lisa declared punching her brother on the arm. He winced and rubbed the spot, pouting at his twin sister.

(Lisa and Sean always were violent - happy days. Happy days)

We stood for a time, laughing together, til eventually Al _(as the most sensible of us all, yes Al - I did just call you sensible, don't die of shock or anything)_ suggested that we actually go into the Great Hall before _all _ the food was gone.

We'd barely walked five steps towards the huge doors though when I heard a shriek and a splash. I spun on my heel and tried not to overbalance as I saw Peeves zooming away, cackling with mad laughter. Rose was stood in a puddle of water, entirely drenched from the water bombs Peeves had just dropped on her head.

I headed back towards her, trying not meet her eyes as when I did, I invariably ended up with my mouth hanging open. Also, I usually could only manage to say 'Argh' which isn't exactly the image I was going for. Anyway, I walked over to help her and failed to notice the very large puddle of water on the floor just in front of her. I was totally humiliated. Landing on your ass in front of the girl you love is never exactly fun.

She stuck out her hand and despite my mortification I managed to reach up and grab it. She hoisted me to my feet and let go of my hand.

"Thanks," I said awkwardly.

"Hey, no problem!" She replied brightly, beginning to wring out her hair. "What are friends for?"

"Yeah," I managed. "Friends..."

"You coming?" She asked, beginning to lead the way to the Great Hall.

"What?" I started and closed my mouth. "Yeah, of course."

Why do I always look such an idiot in front of her. Sometimes I honestly feel like banging my head against a brick wall. Though, on a more positive note, she did look very nice soaking wet.

**(1st September, 2027)**

"You pervert!" Rose squawked, leaning over to punch me on the arm. "You were totally checking me out when I was soaking wet!"

I held up my arms. "Guilty as charged."

"Just out of interest," Al mumbled sleepily, "Do I have to challenge you to a duel or anything for Rosie's honour over this journal."

I winced and put up a hand to protect my face. "Nope!" I squeaked. "Quick, Rose - read some more before your maniac cousin kills me!"

Rose had the gall to laugh.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3...In Which an irate Rose grounds her little brother (Into dust) and decides that maybe I'm not so bad.

**(1st September, 2027)**

"Drinks!" Rose called, as she walked down the garden path towards us, balancing a large tray over her head with her wand. I sat up and accepted the ice-cold pumpkin juice she offered me. She set a second glass down beside Al who grunted his thanks then flopped down onto my lap, laying the tray down beside us. I wrapped my free arm around her middle and kissed the top of her head.

"Any chance of something to eat Rosie-Pose?" Al heaved himself up into a sitting position and grinned at his cousin. She pretended to wrap him over the head with her knuckles, chuckling.

"Greedy!" She laughed her belly laugh, then grabbed the bowl she had brought out with her and passed it to Al. He rooted through it until he pulled out a hunk of gingerbread which he shoved into his mouth.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "That's right Al, don't have any fruit or anything, just go and rot your teeth."

"Au-ny Erm-i-nee orries oo muc. My teefr fine!"

Rose shot him a disgusted look and leant back against me.

"So," She said, ignoring her cousin, "Where have we got to. You know," She added, on seeing my confused face, "With your _journals."_

"Oh." I said.

**(Midsummer's Eve, 2020)**

Today I ran into Rose, drenched, again. I honestly believe she thinks I'm doing it on purpose now, I mean - this must be the third time now and as she seems just as accident prone as usual, I'm guessing it won't be the last time either. And of course, it probably doesn't help that her robes do this..._thing_ when they get wet.

But I'm not going to think about that now or it'll be even harder to talk in front of her than it already is.

If I hadn't seen Hugo push Rose into the Black Lake I would have been inclined to believe that it had just been her clumsiness. Again. After all, it wasn't the first time that I'd seen Rose be distracted by something and imprudently lean just that little too far over.

Rose came up, coughing and sputtering, to the sound of laughter. She smiled good-naturedly and swam towards the bank where she heaved herself out of the water.

"Hugo?" She called, advancing on her little brother who looked very white under his thick covering of freckles.

"H-H-hello, Rosie." Hugo squeaked. Even though Hugo was only twelve he was taller than Rose by a couple of inches. Still, now he seemed shorter as he cowered before her, practically shaking as she looked (Read glowered) at him.

"Erm, Rose?" My voice wavered. Damn those robes, I thought furiously. Talking in front of Rose had always been hard enough without that distraction.

I cleared my throat and tried again. "Um, Rose?"

She didn't look away from her brother as she made a non-committal sound. I assumed it meant I was to continue and I did so.

"Don't do anything drastic will you? I mean, if you kill Hugo won't it go on your permanent record? It'll get dragged up at job interviews and stuff..." I trailed off and shrugged, hoping that she hadn't changed targets.

She tore her eyes away from Hugo (who appeared to be trying to make himself a smaller target as possible) and glanced at me. I tried not to wince as she swept her gaze over me, repeating the words 'Don't look down, Don't look down, don't look down' over and over inside my head like a mantra.

Rose stared at me for a moment then smiled.

"You're right of course, it would complicate future job prospects wouldn't it?" She shot me a smiled and I felt heat flush my cheeks. "Besides, " She carried on, oblivious to my blushes, "I wasn't going to kill him. Just ground him."

Hugo perked up somewhat at that. Rose saw his expression and repeated: "Ground him. Into dust."

Hugo gulped.

The small crowd that had been watching the exchange with interest looked at each other.

"We could ground him into dust." I conceded, "Or we could just chuck him the lake.

Rose beamed at me.

"That's a fantastic idea. Come on, I'll grab his feet.

.0.

And that is how I saved Hugo from being grounded (into dust) but that definitely wasn't the best part. The best part was afterwards, when Hugo was towelling himself off, face now scarlet, and me and Rose (thankfully - or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint- de-soggified) were heading back up towards the castle.

"You're not so bad you know," She said, conversationally, reaching forwards to push open the large, wooden doors. We walked inside together then started up the staircase. She didn't say anything else, just walked beside me smiling slightly.

I maintained an equally carefree expression but inside I felt like I was doing the conga.

Rose thought I wasn't too bad.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 in which, in a feeble attempt to escape with his ears intact, Rose is pushed into a swimming pool, we meet Mrs. Norris mark two and Al is not present for which both of our main characters are exceedingly grateful.

**(1st September, 2027)**

The sun was shining high over head as noon approached. We had moved slightly, to the shadows cast by the ancient beech trees that dotted the perimeter of our overgrown garden, when Rose had complained that the sun was burning her fair skin. Al was lying on his front, flicking through the sixth of my tatty, dog-eared journals, licking his fingers as he turned the pages.

Rose and I were on our backs, fingers loosely linked as we stared up into the dappled sunlight cast by the branches. A light breeze was blowing, making the leaves rustle and caressing my skin.

There was a snort of laughter and I started as Al let out a howl of mirth. Raising my head off the ground, I turned and looked at him and he lay, practically convulsing, on the ground.

"Look!" He gasped between giggles, "I've found another one! Rose was soaking wet _again_ today!"

"Was I really that clumsy at school?" Rose inquired with a grin. "All you ever seem to write about is me, covered in water, or falling over."

"Hush up Rosie and let me read this!" Al shushed her and held up the notebook to eye level.

I let my head flop back down and braced myself for the worst.

"Once upon a time-" Al started in a sing-song voice but got no further as Rose snatched it out of his hands. "Hey! I was reading that!"

"I'm reading it," She said firmly.

"Why?" I asked, confusedly.

"Because I know what happens in this bit. Don't you remember?"

I flushed, remembering full well what had happened that day and, oh kill me now, what I had written afterwards.

"Perhaps we could skip that part..." I trailed off, my voice squeaking slightly.

Al was looking from me to Rose then back to me. "What on earth are you two talking about?"

I shut my eyes. "You really, _really_, don't want to know."

**(24th December, 2022)**

"PEEVES SHUT UP!" I bellowed, flinging the umbrella at the stupid poltergeist's face. It missed _('Of course it did, your aim has always been rubbish' *bang* 'OW that was my head!' 'So sad, too bad Al') _and Peeves retaliated by chucking a tub of paint at me, cackling madly. I felt the paint slide down my face and hair and grimaced. Peeves, grinning maliciously, zoomed away to go and bother some other poor unfortunate soul, lobbing the, now-empty, paint can at me as he went.

I managed to duck as it sailed by and it hit the wall with a clang that reverberated throughout the deserted corridor, smearing the stone wall with scarlet.

"Bugger." I groaned, wiping my eyes and blinking rapidly, trying to clear my sight of red gloop.

There was a mew from somewhere near my feet and I looked down. A great globule of red paint slid off my head and landed, with a splat, on Mrs. Norris the second's mangy head. She fixed me with her yellow eyes, reproachfully and mewed again.

"Bugger!" I said again, this time with more feeling and set off at a run. From somewhere behind me I could hear the shuffling footsteps of the caretaker and I threw myself round a corner, ducked through a door pretending to be a wall, jumped the trick stair, six from the bottom of the staircase and skidded to a halt in front of the statue of Boris the Bewildered. That meant I was on the fifth floor.

I could still hear the footsteps behind me and I froze, waiting for that moment when Filch would burst out from behind a tapestry and peg me up by my ears from the astronomy tower for getting paint on the wall. Then I unfroze long enough to realise that freezing wouldn't help me in the slightest. I barrelled forward and threw myself at the nearest door, then bounced off it as I realised it was locked. The next was locked too. The third proved equally unwieldy. The fourth, however, swung open. I threw myself through it, collided with something soft, there was a splash, a shriek and then silence.

The room was softly lit by a chandelier, hundreds of candles glittering above my head which was reflected off the white marble walls and floor. Long linen curtains hung at one end, covering the windows and a large pile of towels sat in a corner below a portrait, framed in gold, of a blonde mermaid who was brushing her hair and sneezing every now and again. There was also a swimming pool-sized bathtub set into the floor with at least a hundred golden taps at one end and a diving board, of all things, at the other.

And Rose was floating in the water, soaked through.

**(1st September, 2027)**

Rose stopped reading out loud and I screwed my eyes tight closed, hoping she wasn't about to go mental and peg me up by my ears from the beech tree or something.

After I'd pulled Rose from the water, apologising profusely, she had reached up and run her fingers lightly over my face. They came away red and she smiled.

"Ran into Peeves did you?" She had said. And then, so suddenly I couldn't believe it was happening, she was kissing me.

That night, that Christmas Eve, had been wonderful, incredible, amazing and a thousand other descriptive words. I had written what it had been like to kiss her, to touch her. No-one had disturbed us. Al hadn't come barging in. Peeves must have been off terrorizing someone else. Filch obviously didn't know where I'd gone. And for that, I'd been so grateful, covered in paint as I was, Rose in her waterlogged robes. But none of that seemed to matter.

We had kissed and kissed and kissed as outside, through the panes of the window, snow began to fall.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 in which the heroes of our story face their greatest challenge yet - trying to be tactful in the face of great hilarity, and a certain young Mr Potter turns purple (which is not a flattering colour and clashes most definitely with his eyes.)

**(1st September, 2027)**

A cloud skulled across the brilliantly blue sky, momentarily casting a shadow on my face. I opened my eyes and blinked, staring up at the white clouds that had appeared while I'd been asleep.

"And that one, no not that one - _that one, _the one next to the one that looks like a broomstick - that one looks like Crookshanks Junior."

"No it doesn't," I heard Rose say, doubtfully. "It looks like the Knight Bus that came off worse after colliding with a wall."

"Precisely!" Al crowed, then: "OW!"

"You're a git, Al," I muttered, closing my eyes again and blocking out his cries of 'HELP, SHE'S KILLING ME' and the occasional 'thud' as one of Rosie's bony feet made contact with one of Al's equally bony knees.

After a moment the kafuffle died down and I began to listen to their conversation again.

"Fine, that one doesn't look like Crookshanks, but you have to admit that that one over there does look like a flying carpet."

"That's because it is a flying carpet, Al." Rose said, patiently. "Don't you remember, Lisa and Sean nicked that one off Mundungus last year."

"But that's illegal!"

"And?" I asked, "Since when has that stopped the Finnegan twins from doing anything?"

"True," He conceded. "Anyway, we've got one more entry in the last, dun dun dun! of your journals to read then we have _finished_ the Hogwartian Memoirs of Scorpius Malfoy!"

"Finished?" Rose asked, shuffling over the ground to lay her head down on my shoulder.

"Yeah," I smiled, "Well, we left Hogwarts the next day and besides - I didn't need to keep a journal after that."

"Why not?"

I smiled, but didn't answer. The truth was that after leaving Hogwarts I had no need to wonder about my forever. I was living it.

**(25th July, 2023) **

It was the moon peering in through the window that woke me up at twenty-three-and-a-half-minutes-past-one-in-the-bl oody-morning. I'd been so tired the previous night when I'd gone to bed that I had just collapsed face own onto my pillows and passed out, not bothering to pull the curtains around my four-poster. Now though, I regretted that as I lay staring through the window at the moonlight. And at the rain drops sliding down the panes of glass.

Now that I was properly awake I couldn't believe that I had been able to sleep at all through the noise that rain was making. And the moonlight with filled the dormitory with eerie shadows. Plus, sleeping in clothes isn't as comfortable as it seems. I could feel my wand sticking into my shoulder and something hard, probably a sneaker scope (at least, I hoped it wasn't a bottle of ink), digging into my stomach. Sighing, I rolled over and removed the hard lumpy thing (it was, unfortunately, a bottle of ink) and then got, peeling off my sticky, stained shirt.

Looking back, it probably hadn't been that sensible to fall asleep while writing a letter.

After procuring the somewhat battered quill from the top of the curtains hanging around my bed, the parchment from one of my shoes (don't ask) and scourgify-ing the remaining ink from the blankets, I crept out of the dorm, pulling another shirt over my head as I went. The hallways were silent, and I only encountered the odd ghost floating the opposite direction. I strolled along, hands deep in my pockets.

It felt strange to be going home tomorrow. And more than strange to be never coming back to Hogwarts again. So it seemed sort of okay, even right, to spend my last night at this castle that had been my home for so many years, wandering around - having one more late night explore.

The front doors weren't locked when I entered the Entrance Hall, so I pulled one of the great oak doors open and slipped out into the pouring rain, heading for our beach tree by the Lake. The beech tree is definitely our tree - mine and Al's and Rosie's. We've spent hours and hours out there, lying on our backs and enjoying the sunshine, or feverishly studying for O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s or sitting and chatting. Out of everywhere at Hogwarts, it's our place so I think it was only right and proper for me to spend my last night at Hogwarts there.

Even if it happened to be pouring.

And even if it didn't happen to be deserted.

Rose was absolutely drenched by the time I reached her, but then again, so was I. The rain had plastered her hair to her face and her robes had streams of water running off them where the waterlogged fabric was too wet to absorb any more. She also looked unbelievable beautiful and suddenly I knew exactly what I had to do.

"Rose." I started, then stopped and tried to figure out what the heck I was trying to say. "I love you." I said, simply. She opened her mouth to speak but I knew now that if I stopped I'd never be able to get started again and then I'd lose my chance and everything would be ruined.

"No, please, let me speak Rose." I dropped to my knees, squishing in the mud. " I love you and I want to be with you always." And then I pulled out the little box that had been in my pocket for months now. Her mouth almost hit the muddy ground.

"So Rose," I opened the box and held it out to her, "Will you please make me the happiest man alive and be my best friend for life?"

She burst out laughing and pulled the two friendship bracelets, fastening one around her own wrist then pulling me to my feet (my knees make an odd sucking noise as they left the mud) and tying the other around my wrist.

"Best friends forever." She whispered and kissed me. When we finally drew apart I suddenly grinned and reached into my other pocket.

"Oh and by the way Rosie-Pose, will you marry me?"

The exclamation didn't come from Rose though. It came from another person who had been round the other side of the beach's trunk. Albus staggered out and stared at me in complete befuddlement. He was rapidly turning purple.

"That clashes rather magnificently with his eyes," Rose whispered to me with a laugh as she slipped the ring onto her finger.

Ah well, I thought cheerfully, as the three of us began to head back up towards the castle, Rose and I still having to restrain our tactless hilarity at Al's comical face, I suppose it was only right for the three of us to finish this together.

After all, we started it together.

Though, I added silently in my head, If Al tries to interrupt me and Rose when we're on our honeymoon, I'm definitely going to hex his head off...

**(1st September, 2027)**

So I lay there, an arm around my beautiful wife's waist, next to my annoying cousin in law who I couldn't live without, and felt that really, all was well.


End file.
